# CVE-2024-44937: platform/x86: intel-vbtn: Protect ACPI notify handler against recursion

> A race condition in the Intel virtual button driver can cause a kernel NULL pointer dereference and system crash during device undocking.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 26 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-44937, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-44937, GHSA-w3ph-7hx8-wxg6, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-44937

## What is CVE-2024-44937?

CVE-2024-44937 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Aug 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

platform/x86: intel-vbtn: Protect ACPI notify handler against recursion

Since commit e2ffcda16290 ("ACPI: OSL: Allow Notify () handlers to run on
all CPUs") ACPI notify handlers like the intel-vbtn notify_handler() may
run on multiple CPU cores racing with themselves.

This race gets hit on Dell Venue 7140 tablets when undocking from
the keyboard, causing the handler to try and register priv->switches_dev
twice, as can be seen from the dev_info() message getting logged twice:

[ 83.861800] intel-vbtn INT33D6:00: Registering Intel Virtual Switches input-dev after receiving a switch event
[ 83.861858] input: Intel Virtual Switches as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.0/PNP0C09:00/INT33D6:00/input/input17
[ 83.861865] intel-vbtn INT33D6:00: Registering Intel Virtual Switches input-dev after receiving a switch event

After which things go seriously wrong:
[ 83.861872] sysfs: cannot create duplicate filename '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.0/PNP0C09:00/INT33D6:00/input/input17'
...
[ 83.861967] kobject: kobject_add_internal failed for input17 with -EEXIST, don't try to register things with the same name in the same directory.
[ 83.877338] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
...

Protect intel-vbtn notify_handler() from racing with itself with a mutex
to fix this.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-44937?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-44937?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-44937 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-44937 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-44937 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-44937 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Aug 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-44937 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-44937/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-44937/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-44937
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-44937
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-44937

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-44937/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.